It’s All Just English, Right??

On El Reg today (thanks, Brett, for the link!):

Brits and Yanks struck with embarasment embarrassment

“It’s official: English is going directly to hell in a handcart because more than half of native speakers of the lingo can’t spell ‘embarrassed’ - and even more have entered the new millennium without the foggiest idea of how 1,000 years pan out in our beloved mother tongue.…”

Make sure you check out the Times’ “Spelling Bee” and the comments, both at the end.

Stonehenge Solved?

From latimes.com early this morning:

Stonehenge was a royal family’s burial site, researchers say

“…The structure is aligned with sunrise at the summer solstice, and researchers have long viewed the monument as both an astronomical observatory and a cemetery, although they thought that the burials took place only over a relatively short period, perhaps a century.

“But research over the last three years has provided a wealth of new information indicating that Stonehenge is only part of a much larger ceremonial and religious complex.

“Excavations at Durrington Walls, two miles northeast of Stonehenge, revealed a village that is now thought to contain as many as 1,000 houses and a wooden henge that is virtually identical in design to Stonehenge but is aligned with sunrise at the winter solstice. It was built at the same time as Stonehenge.…”

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Super Speedy!!

Bob mentioned seeing in his weather pokings that, in conjunction with the lovely weather heading towards Ireland and Great Britain, the jet stream tomorrow will likely enable a 777 to make the trans-Atlantic in about two (yes, that’s 2) hours.

The lovely weather includes barometric pressure down to about 937 millibars or so, which translates to about 27.67" Hg…

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One Down; How Many to Go?

This sounds interesting; here I go to Amazon to add it to the wish list…

From NPR’s Weekend Edition last Sunday:

Rehabbing a Villain from Henry VIII’s Court

In King Henry VIII’s vicious court of intrigue, Jane Boleyn kept her head low and followed the money.

Married to George Boleyn, brother of Anne, who would eventually become Henry’s queen, Jane won a place in the heart of the Tudor regime as Anne’s sister-in-law. Jane enjoyed many perks of court life, but she also had ringside seats to the dramas that unfolded in the king's court.

Author Julia Fox meticulously details Jane's life — and her role in the scandals that engulfed the court — in her first book, Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford.

For centuries, Jane Boleyn has been reviled. When Queen Anne was accused of adultery with several men, including her own brother — Jane’s husband, George - Jane was interrogated. Jealous of the close relationship between George and Anne, Jane provided testimony that helped lead to the siblings’ executions. Or so the story goes.

But Fox challenges this picture of Jane as a vindictive and opportunistic young woman. Re-examining the historical record, Fox suggests that Jane had no reason to risk her privileged life with George for penniless, landless widowhood. And she chronicles how Jane clawed her way out of obscurity and back up the court’s social ladder — attending to Henry VIII’s third, fourth and fifth wives.

It was Jane’s service to Henry’s fifth wife, the teenaged Catherine Howard (who was also Anne Boleyn’s first cousin) that proved her undoing. Jane passed messages from Catherine to her secret lover, Thomas Culpepper. Jane was eventually interrogated and executed for her role as go-between.

Liane Hansen spoke with Fox about Boleyn’s life and her place in history.

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England Swings Like…

…California!!!

From Bloomberg.com tomorrow morning:

England Hit by 5.2 Quake

By Kari Lundgren

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. was hit by its biggest earthquake since 1984 early today when a magnitude 5.2 temblor struck in Lincolnshire, eastern England, the British Geological Survey said.

The quake hit at 12:56 a.m. local time about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of London and was felt across England.

Chimneys were damaged in homes near the town of Market Rasen, 5 miles from the epicenter, and one person was reportedly injured, according to the BGS. The agency said it was “inundated with calls from the public, media and emergency services throughout England.”

It was the largest quake in the U.K. since a 5.4 magnitude temblor hit the Lleyn Peninsula in Wales in 1984, the BGS said, adding such tremors usually occur in the country about every 30 years. It earlier reported the magnitude as 5.3. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake as magnitude 4.7 and said it was 6.2 miles deep.

“It felt like the roof was going to fall in,” the British Broadcasting Corp. cited Bev Finnegan, who lives in Market Rasen, as saying on its Web site. “There were people coming out in their dressing gowns and wondering what it was.”

An elderly man suffered leg injuries when a chimney collapsed in Wombwell, South Yorkshire, the BBC said.

The BGS said it records about 200 earthquakes in the U.K. every year and that about 25 are felt by people.

BGS seismologist Brian Baptie said in a statement today's temblor was a “significant earthquake for the U.K.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Kari Lundgren in London at klundgren2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 27, 2008 00:17 EST

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